Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Pasta with asparagus and quail egg

Once in a while, we do feel worn out with struggling with different cultures, customs and languages for too long. Take ordering a sandwich as an example. My husband wanted to order a "special" sandwich - bacon and egg. Tortilla de patatas (think of scrambled egg with sliced potatos) sandwich is on the menu, so as bacon sandwich. So could they omit the potatoes when they fry the egg, then put it, plus the bacon, into the bread? No. the cafe guy told my husband that it wasn't available.

Sometime I really admire the persistence of my husband.

He went back to the same cafe again. He asked if there's any tortilla prepared without potato. The cafe guy said yes, it's called tortilla francesa, which is, solo egg.

So my husband ordered a tortilla francesa & bacon sandwich. No problem. The guy brought out bacon and egg sandwich a few minutes later from the kitchen.

Back to this dish, you do whatever you want, chicken egg or quail egg, fried or hard-boiled, no pain no stress.

Normally, I like a big plate of hot pasta with sauteed asparagus, topped with lots of shaved hard cheese and a sunny-side up. The melting cheese and the runny egg yolk make a wonderful sauce for the pasta.

Now with the similar ingredients I changed the presentation a little bit. Turned the cooked sombreroni pasta (you can used sheet pasta) upside down, filled it with cheese, asparagus and diced boiled egg, topped it with fried quail egg to finish. I am sure you can come up with many more variations.

Recipe of pasta with asparagus and quail egg

(for 2 servings as the first course)

about 6 sombreroni pasta

4 + 6 quail eggs

100 g asparagus, diced

1 clove of garlic, finely diced

fine sea salt

spoonful of grate parmigiano-reggiano

cayenne pepper powder

red peppercorns as garnish

How-to:

First, boil 4 quail eggs for about 5 minutes (or less). After they cool off, diced up. Set them aside.

Cook the sombreroni until they are done. In this case, you can add a bit of oil (besides of salt) in the boiling water to avoid they stick together during cooking. Drain.

In a skillet, pre-heat some olive oil, add garlic, asparagus and a pinch of salt, saute for about a minute or two. Put them in a big bowl, combine with the diced-up egg and cheese.

Pan-fry, with oil and salt, 6 more quail egg until they are almost done.

Fill the sombreroni with asparagus filling, topped with a fried egg, sprinkle a tiny bit of cayenne, garnish with red peppercorns.

That's a wonderful story on your husband! We should all remember persistence really does win the most! The only time I've had quail eggs was midway across the Atlantic on our sailing trip (we bought them on Santa Cruz de Tenerife). Your dish makes me see why visually they would really change a dish.You are so right about the yolk being such great sauce!This is beautiful.

I've been checking out your blog for some time now and am continually amazed at the great stuff you do! The presentation of this dish, as many others commented, is beautiful! I'll definitely have to search out this pasta and try it.